Agri Spray plans to build fully US-made farm spraying drones within five years

Agri Spray, a company in Boonville, Missouri, that has sold Chinese-made agricultural drones, plans to become a maker of fully American-sourced spraying drones within five years, its founder and chief executive Taylor Moreland told DroneLife. He said restrictions from the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of War on foreign drones had created a need for US-made spray drones.

Moreland said the company is already writing its own software and firmware while most hardware still comes from China, and will use a conditional approval programme to keep its foreign supply chains while it moves production home. Assembly with mostly foreign parts will start in the next few months in part of its warehouse in Missouri.

From the second year it plans more US-made parts, then US motors by the fourth year and US batteries in most products by then. “Could we build a 100 percent US-made spray-drone: software, hardware, everything? Yes, we could,” Moreland said, but he added that the US cannot yet supply enough motors and batteries to build them at scale.

The company has about 65 staff and expects to hire 25 to 30 people over the next two years. It is wholly owned by Moreland and is starting to look for outside investment.